Azorín, traductor del teatro de la modernidad en El doctor Frégoli o la comedia de la felicidad
Azorín, Translator of the Theatre of Modernity in El doctor Frégoli o La comedia de la felicidad

Summary/Abstract: The piece El Doctor Frégoli o La comedia de la felicidad, which Azorín published in 1928, is an adaptation (free or faithful?) of a play by the Russian writer Nicolai Evreinov, which beneath the trivial aspect of being a comedy offers a complete reflexion on the process of writing plays, creation of characters, scenic illusion and free will. Divided between the promising lie and the bitter truth, the characters – just like with Pirandello where they create themselves while the play is being written – take refuge to the illusion of happiness. This article focuses on the conditions of modernity and the renovation of the theatre the way the Spanish playwright José Martínez Ruiz Azorín wanted it in the years between 1926 and 1930. In response to a global project which takes into account both the writing of plays and their being put on stage, the role of the actors as well as the lighting, the play El Doctor Frégoli o La comedia de la felicidad is an example, today forgotten, of what actually was a surrealist theatre, mixing theatre and theatre of life, and the strong impact it has on what is being created today.

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